Just my thoughts on all things Soccer.
"I guess I've never viewed soccer as some sort of controlled substance. To me, it's probably more like Nutella. The rest of the world clearly loves it and puts it on almost everything, but here in America we're like, "I don't know, man, it tastes like almonds."

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

June FIFA Rankings move the USA up to 16th

The rankings are out and in a bit of a surprise, the USA has catapulted up 13 spots from 29th to 16th. This movement has a lot to do with the Gold Cup results as confederation tournaments are worth more the qualifiers or friendlies.

In other 'surprise news', France has edged Brazil out of the number two spot in the world. Meanwhile, Mexico dropped six places to 26th, which Hugo Sanchez blamed on type of ballots FIFA uses to calculate the scores and has nothing to do with his coaching inabilities.

Here are the top 20:

Rank

Team

May Rank

Change

1.

Italy

1

0

2.

France

4

+2

3.

Brazil

2

-1

4.

Germany

5

+1

5.

Argentina

3

-2

6.

Portugal

7

+1

7.

Spain

9

+2

8.

England

8

0

9.

Netherlands

6

-3

10.

Czech Republic

10

0

11.

Croatia

12

+1

12.

Romania

15

+3

13.

Ukraine

11

-2

14.

Cameroon

13

-1

15.

Greece

16

+1

16.

USA

29

+13

17.

Sweden

22

+5

18.

Poland

18

0

19.

Ghana

28

+9

20.

Ivory Coast

25

+5

Teams moving into the top 20: USA, Sweden, Ghana, Ivory Coast.Teams moving out of the top 20: Turkey, Scotland, Russia, Mexico.